He was married in 1983 to Anna Rosa, they have four children. Stewart has served his community in the provincial government as MLA for Coquitlam-Maillardville from 2001 to 2005; appointed MLA Responsible for Francophone Affairs, member of the Government Caucus Committee on the Economy, and Chair of the Select Standing Committee on Education. Stewart is bilingual, speaking English and French. Stewart has experience as a community volunteer in a large number of social, service, environmental, business and community organizations, including the CoquitlamRotary Club, the Knights of Columbus, the Maillardville Lions Club, the Société Maillardville Uni and Société Francophone de Maillardville.
Career
Stewart was previously President of the Canadian Home Builders' Association of British Columbia, Chair of the National Housing Economic Research Council, a member of the BC Minister’s Advisory Council on Affordable Housing, a member of National and BC Building Code Committees, and a member of the National Research Council Canada’s Standing Committee on Housing. At the local government level, Stewart has served on Economic Development Committees, on a local Advisory Design Panel, on Housing Committees, and as a Trustee on the Coquitlam Public Library Board. Stewart is a writer, and has operated his own publishing, government relations and communications business. On November 15, 2008, Stewart was elected as mayor of Coquitlam in the British Columbia municipal elections, beating out incumbent Maxine Wilson. In 2016, Stewart revealed that he had been wearing the same suit to work events for the past fifteen months, in an effort to highlight the double standard that women in the public sphere, particularly in politics, are subject to over their appearance. He stated that while he had heard of female colleagues at both the municipal and provincial levels of government receiving negative comments about their outfits and hairstyles, particularly when they re-used outfits, he had never heard of a male politician receiving similar comments. Although his original intention was to carry on until someone noticed, he went public after fifteen months because "I was wearing the same suit to every meeting and no indication that anyone was ever going to notice."
